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From Pastor Perry

04/15/2017 Gen. 44:30-34

Genesis 44:30–34 (ESV)

Joseph Tests His Brothers (Part 6)

30 “Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, 31 as soon as he sees that the
boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. 32 For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I
do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’ 33 Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.
34 For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

The Lutheran Study Bible summarizes the last week’s readings as follows. “Joseph prepares a final test to determine whether his brothers will allow Benjamin to be enslaved and bring further grief to their father. Their refusal to leave
Benjamin behind, and Judah’s sacrificial offer of himself to spare both brother and father, show that their hearts have genuinely changed. Like Joseph, God often tests what is in our hearts. He reminds us to humbly acknowledge and take responsibility
for our sin. When Judah mediates with his father and with Joseph, and shows himself willing to be enslaved in place of his brother, this prefigures the saving work of his descendant, Jesus, who gave Himself as mediator, ransom, and sacrifice for the world.”

I pray: Jesus, You gave Yourself for us and made known the Father’s loving heart.
Turn us from sin, selfishness, and alienation to live for You, as You have died for us. Amen.